As you can see, both rely on a limited color palatte that very clearly marks them as 70s-era books. Papa Night (above) is written by Ruth A. Sonneborn and illustrated by Emily A. McCully. The story follows a loving but poor family whose papa has to work two jobs. As a result, he only spends one night a week, Friday night, with his family. Sad, but expectedly somber for the 70s. (published by Viking in 1970)
Potato Pancakes, written and illustrated by Marilyn Hirsh, is a Hannukkah tale published by the Jewish Publication Society of America in 1978. I love how these two books, about two drastically different cultural experiences (one Latino, the other Jewish, one urban and modern, the other folkloric), are linked together by their two-toned illustration, which clearly identifies the books as being of the same era.
Special Finds
When I'm bookhunting, I'm looking for books I recognize or for books whose illustrations are so beautiful and unique that they belong in my collection--my special finds. Yesterday, I came across two new illustrators in the special finds category: Jozef Wilkon and Robert Andrew Parker.
The Story of the Kind Wolf (above), written by Peter Nickl and Illustrated by Jozef Wilkon, features heart-renderingly sweet chalk pastel drawings of a wolf who plays against type. (North-South Books; 1982).
The second find, The Trees Stand Shining, features the poetry of the North American Indians selected by Hettie Jones, and the Paintings of Robert Andrew Parker. I particularly love this little cricket.
I think one of my great pleasures in bookhunting is digging through piles of generic, uninspired illustrations and finding these gems for people to re-discover and re-enjoy, often 30 years after they first debuted. I hope the books that I feature on this page feel fresh and timeless, no matter when they were published. That, I think, is the mark of good writing and illustration.
